Kitts one week on

It was only a week ago our kittens Tesco & Sainsbury were "done" and they are back to their normal lunatic running around selves .  The stitches ripped out by Tesco caused a little concern  but there seems no harm done.  Little Sainsbury (the lad) didnt seem to be slowed down at all and has been happy as larry since getting back home.  He seemed more upset at being in the cat box than anything else, trying the whole time to claw his way out whilst crying the whole trip there and back!

Nuts missing!

Well doesn't time fly when you are enjoying yourself!  It seems only a couple of months ago that we were staring down at the bundles of fluff dwarfed by Tom our old cat.  It was however time yesterday for them to "be done".

Sainsbury being the boy was castrated,  ok all the men reading this wince and a have short intake of breath.  The vet (a girlie) said, "its not a serious operation",  at which I looked at her and said "well no not for you!".

Tesco however had to be speyed which just like the modern hysterectomy is an everyday op nowadays but is more "invasive" as the vet put it.
She came home obviously in pain crying when she moved but by the end of the evening seemed to have settled down ok.  She managed to remove one of the stitches overnight in spite of wearing one of those collars but the wound looks to be intact so we are leaving it for now.

Pic above is Tesco trying to get her breakfast with the collar on.

Dentist for me in a mo, is there no end to the joy!

Oh yes the Title "Nuts Missing"  (steady now!) here's our resident pesky critter stealing our peanuts and fat balls (quiet now) 

Low wit today!

Isn't sarcasm "the lowest form of wit?" or so its said, well here's a bit from me.
Its not that I'm following the American Presidential Election but we do seem to be getting "their headlines" quite a lot on the sky news website.  It was with great mirth (little things do amuse little minds don't they!) I noticed that a candidate by the odd name of, "Mitt Romney", had won one of their primary elections.  Today the headlines are ringing with the news that "Mitt Romney" has been beaten by, a "Newt Gingrich" in a South Carolina primary!

However, the final word (prize) today in sacrcasm has to go to the owners of the "Concordia" , the ship lying on its side in the Med.

From the Sunday Telegraph - The owners of the Costa Concordia are offering survivors of the disaster a 30 per cent discount off future cruises as they battle to stave off law suits expected to cost hundreds of millions of pounds.     

I think "INSULT to injury and harrowing ordeal" fits neatly in to place here! 
Anyway, back to reality we are booked in for a carvery at "The Church" today http://fancyapint.com/Pub/darley-dale/church-inn/31245  so I had better get out for a walk, dont want to be shooting up past 12stone again.
 I did say sarcasm was the lowest form of wit didnt I!?

Is it me? - - again

I had an e mail recently from our friend Sharon in Canada.  It contained a cutting from an American newspaper.

 A robber was fleeing the shop he had just held up and ran into a group of 4 Marines (in uniform) who were out doing some charity collecting.  The robber bumps into and knocks one of the Marines into the road and he injures his arm.  The shop owner comes out and indicates that, "this man is a robber".  The four Marines set about the robber who in "falling off the kerb into the street" sustains a broken leg, arm and ribs he also has 2 black eyes and multiple bruises.  The police arrive and after giving first aid to the Marine who fell into the road cart off the robber who eventually gets sent to jail.   Fair do's maybe health and safety should look at the height of the kerb but, there you go - - - result?   Yes.

I recently saw on You-tube a video of a train conductor being verbally abused by a, "young man" on a train.  You can hear the, "young man" indicating that he is not getting off the train but he has no ticket and is not willing to pay.  This go's on for a short while.  A large gentleman appears in the video and pulls the "young man" from his seat and without a word ejects said man from train and stops him getting back on until the doors close.  Hearty applause from the onlookers as the large gentleman sits down and the train trundles on - end of video. I read in the newspaper 2 days later that the "Large gentleman" is being charged for assault by the police who are using the You Tube video as the evidence. - - - result? I don't think so or, "is it just me?"

Lights out! - - Again!

Just sitting around watching a bit of TV on Sunday when the power went off, a few minutes later it came on again and we thought nothing of it.  About an hour later a van parks in the terrace driveway and a number of people start digging a hole just at the left hand side of the drive way on the pavement.

The following morning it emerged that the power cut was the cause of the digging but apart from a hole left in the pavement that looked to be the end of it. Alas no!

0100 Tuesday morning! a number of trucks arrived and disgorged digging machines, traffic lights and barriers along a with a merry band of diggers! 0136 the power went off i noticed the time as my website went down and this is the last time the still pics had the time for.

What seemed like hours later! well it would when you are lying there listening to machines all night it went a bit quiet and, yes you guessed it the alarm went off.

Always being one "whom is prepared", I have a head torch by the bed mind you upstairs I didn't need this as I had an incandescent wife to light my way down the stairs!

Downstairs the kittens have also become a little blase about watching the the workmen through the window but dont seem to mind having their breakfast by candlelight.  I make my way to the shed and recover the camping stove already primed and ready to go.  Its that cold -4.9c that the auto lighter doesn't work but we have lots of the old "10 lighters for a pound" from the car boot sale and a cup of tea is steaming in no time at all.

Its time to go to work and with the log burner blasting out heat and light as I collect my bits and bobs together the power comes back on.

And so to work leaving the incandescent wife furiously penning an e mail complaint and signing it "Grumpy of Grafton Terrace".

As I negotiate the bottom of the drive which by now is an assault course of barriers and health and safety signs I notice the contractors  have gone, no doubt to have a hearty well cooked breakfast (by electricity of course) and count their well earned bonus for such a "good nights" work

My Boss Tracey is Great!

My Boss Tracy is great, well especially as she has signed off my holiday requests for the next 12 months.

Bit of drama at the shop I noticed one of the girls from the cafe looked a bit down in the mouth, seems her boyfriend dumped her by text and then she saw him out with another girl.  Young love hey!  

On arriving home not long ago my next door neighbour John greeted me with, "Do you like my new kitchen?".  In his workshop garage was a pile of used kitchen units he had picked up form outside a house just up the road.  I reckon it will join the other started but unfinished projects he has running.  The garden bottom terrace into a courtyard with conservatory, the top terrace into a veg patch.  The part erected greenhouse that has now almost fallen down.  - - - I advised him to use it for firewood! 

The very mild weather we have been having looks to be coming to an end as its quite chilly just now and wih the clear sky this evening I think we might see some frost tonight.  

I still think my boss is great!  

New Van and Whale sharks!

New Van 

I had spoken to my friend who has a couple ex fleet vans for sale last Sunday and today managed to go to up to his place this morning and take 1 for a drive.  I took it down to Sainsbugs to do a little shopping and the place promptly had a power cut.  The last one cost the shop £60k but thankfully the power was only off for 20 minutes or so 

So here we are the New Van, we are in a situation where we will not need it until the end of Feb so its housed temporarily in our friends complex undercover. 

Whale Sharks 

I was looking through the various news sites this morning and came across a number of incredible pics of fishermen in the Philippines hand feeding whale sharks.  We have yet to see whale sharks in our trips to the Maldives, maybe  on our next one in 5 weeks time! 

Follow this link to see the pics 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/9002157/Whale-sharks-feeding-from-the-hands-of-fishermen-in-the-Philippines.html  

Bought a van down the pub!

Not as mad it might sound actually. A good friend of ours buys ex fleet vans and sells them on.  He mentioned before Christmas that he was going to have some vans soon and finally told me had them Sunday down at the pub in "Salon Rustique". (see previous blog entry)
With Sally expressing an intention to maybe go part time locally before the end of the year we decided it would make sense to sell one of our 4x4s.  Another spin off from her intention was to cancel the Australia trip we had planned for October.
I then came up with the idea of selling her beloved "Boris" the defender to finance some of the holiday.  a little reluctantly she agreed.  So that's where the van idea came from, and to Australia we shall go!
When I mentioned the "Boris" selling Lisa (cutting hair in Salon Rustique) had said we should store "him" as the TD5 version is not made any longer and the new defender looks just like any other 4x4.
I did a bit of research on the net yesterday and his current value is astonishing, so it looks as if we will be taking her advice.
Where to store "him" is another challenge, our friend with the vans mentioned we could store him at his complex but generous as the offer is I would rather have "him" here.  So watch this space on the still webcam in summertime for some kind of carport!

SALLY DRIVING HER BELOVED "BORIS"
 I get to drive him now and again and you can see its a bit of a cult vehicle already as other Defender drivers wave at you - - - makes me cringe and pretend not to notice them!!

Salon Rustique!

I'm sure I have mentioned before that our local pub The Church Inn Darley Dale, has this quirky custom of letting our friend Lisa cut peoples hair on the first Sunday of every month.  Since the new owners introduced dining in the pub Lisa had been cutting in the yard at the back of the pub.

As its now quite cool she has set up in what used to be a stable in the old days.  So here's a pic of Lisa cutting yesterday in what i christened "Salon Rustique"

Wake up call & decks down

Ok I don't normally do the political monster on here as I firmly do not believe even 1/10th of the stuff that appears in the papers.  I also think politicians only tell us what they want us to know.  Hang on hang on is this coming from the bloke who said one of his new year resolutions was to be less cynical?  Yes it is

The Independent this morning has a headline "Obama: The US can no longer fight the worlds battles".  It will come as no surprise to most people that "the world" would probably be better off if the US kept its nose out of anyone else's business.  This also go's for our dear Mr Cameron, we are soon to pull out of Afghanistan after achieving what?   filling in a load of american bomb holes to rebuild villages and placating a lot of locals that we are killing them for "their own good".

Ok burying my head in the sand? I don't think so, the ploitical shenanigans that go on to get the troops into these situations have meant they are fighting with one arm tied behind their backs.  Why don't we "muck out" our own pig sty first before we go and shit in someone else's?

That said, the windy weather of yesterday looks to have eased a little even though a pretty cool at 1.9c just now
I managed to get stuck into a little "book" work yesterday and even kicked around a few designs for the cover.  I'm using both Kindle and Booksmart to publish the book so need to be aware of the limitations of both rather than having just the one plan.   I might even put up a separate "book"  page on the website to see if it generates any comment!
Another plus from yesterday was my old Friend "Bulmer" from the Hereford days had agreed to come on the Welsh 15 Peaks Challenge.  So its 2 "old guys" to be helped along!
And so too today, the Christmas decorations have to come down, its great to get them up and the 2 new kittens have had a ball snatching down baubles, strangely just the red ones, from the trees and racing around the cottage with them.  Its also great to get them down and cleared away, it kind of lets you know the year has really started and you should "get your finger out"

So onwards and upwards

Same again thank you

A very stormy night, lots of wind and a fair bit of rain with reports of trees down locally

Wind and rain!

Quite a stormy night from the weather point of view.  I'm on a day off today after a fairly typical Monday at the shop apart from opening at 0900, the usual number of shoppers "Challenges" to deal with.

I will post a pic or 2 later as I'm off for a walk as soon as the light is good enough and intend this morning to do an hour on "the book".  Lets hope i dont fall prey to the "road to good intentions etc"

Sally's first day back at work today but she has been struck down by the dreaded flu bug and has been pked off back to bed.
More later

Still a bit wet and windy now, here's a couple of pics from the walk

Happy New Year

So here we are then 2012, with the usual celebrations around the world to usher in the new year.  I watched the firework display on the net in Sydney and the bridge as always makes a perfect backdrop.  The London display I think did look better though.

Outside just now the birds are singing, you can just hear them on the webcam mic and it looks like its going to be a nice day.

New Year resolutions?  be more positive, get my finger out with "the book" and not be such a cynic!!

First thing on the horizon is our trip to the Maldives in Feb then there's the Welsh 15 in June, I wonder what other "unplanned" events will come along to spice up the year.


Anyway onwards and upwards Happy New Year.